


Heart of Terra

by QuinxX



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Demons, Elemental Magic, Eventual Romance, Experimentation, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Magic, Magic-Users, Multi, Mystery, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Mythology - Freeform, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Mythology, Original Universe, POV Female Character, POV Original Character, Past Torture, Psychic Abilities, Romance, Secret Children, Spirits, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-19 05:41:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10633404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuinxX/pseuds/QuinxX
Summary: Many years ago the earth was fought over by spirits and humans, each wanting to claim it for themselves. It wasn't until  two young from each side fell in love that peace was finally brought about. However as time went on the spirits were being treated with cruelty by the humans, some forced into slavery. This pushed the spirits back into the forests, and they made their homes deep within nature. Causing some spirits to become restless as they protest that humans are breaking their side of the peace treaty.Terra is a young girl that is adopted by the spirits for reasons they will not tell her after she escapes from the experimentations of doctors. All she knows is that spirits have always helped and guided her along the way.But something is changing, spirits are venturing further into the human world and the humans are acting out in violence.The key to it all is Terra. Will she become the key to peace or the beginning of the end?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi this is my first story on this website. 
> 
> I will try to improve as I go along and hopefully can add my sense of humour and appreciation for character development into the mix. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy and please leave a comment, would really appreciate feedback :)

“Wake up!” 

“Please have to go now-”

I rolled my head over to the familiar voice. The weight of my eyelids fighting my foggy brains attempt at opening them. 

“Go?” I repeated, my ears only catching the last few words. I rubbed my clenched fist across my tired eyes as I slowly became aware of my surroundings. 

“Yes young master. Now please follow quickly while still have time. Village people be here soon!” the voiced squeaked. I looked up at the sprite that floated around my bed, my eyes adjusting to the violet glow that surrounded her. The colour deepening into a darker colour by the second, expressing the creatures growing distress. 

“Fia what’s going on?” I said mid-yawn. 

“The doctors are gone! Yes bad doctors gone. Good for master. Good for Fia, good good. But must go! Bad here soon!” she pleaded. 

Still confused I rose out of bed. Fia furiously nodded as she continued urging me to move. Bobbing her small head faster, until I had finally gotten up. 

She began to tug on my hair, her slender arms barely the length of my pinky finger. Pulling the long locks towards the direction of the door. 

“But Claudius said to wait in the underground until the moons shadow disappeared” 

I looked around the room as I could tell that something had changed. I rubbed my eye trying to clear up the blurriness. The room held no furniture other than a small wooden metal bed with a single pillow and thin rug. There were no windows and the only light source was a flickering candle that hung on the stone walls. Old scratch marks could be seen throughout the room. Fia wouldn’t say who or what made them them but I knew it wasn’t a good thing. Something was missing. 

“No no don’t listen to. Wants to use master, will bring bad things back” she shivered, but my attention was drawn else where. 

My eyes narrowed around my naked ankles. 

“Fia where are my silver bracelets?” I asked feeling a chill around the bare skin.

“Not bracelets. Lie. Chains. Chains gone. Fia had help, we remove chains now can go!” 

I looked at my wrists and saw that unlike my feet, I still had my silver bracelets wrapped around both arms in a crossing ‘x’ pattern. 

Following my eyes Fia fluttered nervously as she looked at my bracelets. 

“Couldn’t remove hand chains. Different magic. Burned Fia” she said wincing as she showed me a burn mark running in a lighting pattern across her left arm. 

“Now must go!” she said once again yanking my hair. 

“Ok but if Claudius gets angry it’s not my fault” I said stepping towards the wooden door.  
I pulled at the handle. I was surprised as it creaked open. Usually it had a lock and I had to wait for Claudius to let me out. Sometimes it was fun and I got to play in the garden with the other kids, but other times I had to go far into the woods down in to the cave. I didn’t like going but I couldn’t remember why. 

We left and continued down the pathway, the ceiling was low and the stone had moss growing from the top that continued down along the sides of the walls. There were two pillars that had torches hanging from them, and I looked cautiously at the flames hoping that they didn’t start to move. 

As we reached the stairs I was glad that Fia’s glow was strong enough that I could see where I was going. It was very dark underground and that made it hard to walk without tripping on the jagged crystals on the floor that grew like weeds. Well at least that was what Claudius called them ‘weeds’, I liked the crystals, they were pretty and sometimes they even glowed. But only if I asked really nicely. 

“Fia my dress is all ripped at the bottom and its dirty. What if the village kids make fun of me again?” I asked tugging on the corners of the white fabric. This pulled down one side of the dress and the material fell off my shoulder. Fia quickly flew to my side and slipped it back up patting it down neatly. Her needle like fingers pulled off a stray thread. Content with this she flew back near my face. 

“No no children…all gone. Master does not need worry. Now up stairs then back to forest. Fia will protect. Live in tree” she smiled before turning around and leading me up the stairs. 

I wasn’t sure why all the kids had gone. Maybe they were playing hide and seek. I felt a bit sad that I wasn’t invited to play but I followed Fia up the stairs until we reached the door on the ceiling. It was made of a thick wood and had a metal lock in the centre. The lock had an odd symbol that I saw quite a lot in the main building but nobody would tell me what it was.  
Usually it needed a key, but Fia said some words in her language and the door flew open.  
I climbed the ladder but when I got to the top I had to pull myself up onto the grass. It was hard on my own, usually Claudius would grab my arms and pull me up. 

Now we were standing in a small garden that was surrounded by a tall iron fence on all sides. It was night time outside so the usually green garden looked black and blue. The hedges wavered in the cold breeze and I missed the flowers that grew in the spring season, they were so friendly.  
At the end of the garden was the gate that led into the main building, I didn’t want to go in without permission, but with Fia flying ahead of me I followed her not wanting to be left behind. I hated being alone. 

Once we went through I noticed that there was no light, other than the natural shine radiating from the moons almost full form pouring in through the windows. It was oddly quiet too. I followed Fia’s now yellow glow but stopped when I noticed an odd object lying on the floor beside all the furniture. Fia turned around when she noticed the halt in my footsteps. 

“Ah young master please. No stop, follow Fia” she insisted, concern heavy in her voice. 

I reached down to gain a closer look at the object only to realise it was one of the doctors, Soa.  
Why was he lying down? The floor wasn’t his bed. I poked his face to see if he would wake up. I could hear Fia’s nervous muttering but I got distracted by the wetness on Soa’s face.  
Had he had a bath? Why was he wet? I looked at my finger and saw a red liquid dripping down onto my hand.  
Fia shrieked in alarm. Grabbing onto my finger and pulling back towards the exit. 

“Fia I think Soa’s hurt. Can you fix him?” I asked, wondering what was wrong. 

“No no. Too late. Must leave. Must get to Tree” she shook her head in a frantic way. 

We continued walking down corridors and hallways, going up and down stairs. The main building was so big. They said a family of five used to live here when it was first built, but I wondered why five people would need such a big house. Now the doctors lived here and so did the other children and me. For some reason the villagers weren’t happy that we lived here. 

“Nearly outside. Close” Fia mumbled. 

Finally we had reached the large doors at the end of the building, once again Fia opened the door but this time it flew open with less force and Fia looked pretty worn out. Her hummingbird wings were beating slower and she was flying closer to the ground than before. 

“Fia here” I said, placing my two palms together as though holding water. I reached up to Fia and she landed on my hands. 

“Thank you young master. Now up to forest. Find Tree” Fia insisted. 

Fia felt so delicate in my hands. She was a smaller sprite, about the size of poppy flower and she smelled like one too. Her eyes were large black almond slits, underneath she had brown spots on her cheeks that went back to her forehead and weaved in with her hairline. She had long brown hair that grew down to her hips and covered most of her oak coloured body that otherwise would have been naked. Her nose was small and resembled a fawns, as did her ears. Two thin twig-like antlers sprouted from the top of her head and many strands of her hair were tangled in the branches. Her eyebrows were just two round dots but were lowered in concern as we left the house. 

I got nervous as we left the main house and headed for the village. I knew that we would have to walk into the village first before we could reach the forest. I had only gone into the village by myself a few times and the village people would always stare at me a lot.  
But as we walked past, everything was quiet. The village was placed near a mountain and many of the stone houses were blended in with the boulders that surrounded them. Tall grass and trees grew next to the houses but no flowers or fruit could be seen. In the centre of the village there were paths made of pebbles and stones that I began to walk across. I wondered why it was so quiet. Even at night time you could usually hear the animals talking to each other, and some of the village men that worked up in the valleys would come home late in the night. But at the moment nothing but the crunching of my feet on the stones made a sound. Curiosity peaked and I peered into a nearby houses window.  
Like Soa I saw three people lying on the floor with a pool of liquid around each of their heads. 

“Fia what happened to the village people?” I asked, a sense of fear bubbling in my chest. 

“Not good. Not good” she responded sadly then urged me to continue walking.

She continued to give me directions by pointing, but having traveled to the forest so many times, I already knew which way to go.  
Because the village was so close to a river, there were several rows of brides and small fishing boats. I always wanted to paddle in one but one of the children from our house had gotten in a boat and I had never seen her again. Claudius told me that it was because the river spirits had eaten her. 

Once we were out of the village there was a small wall that led the path to the river. It was made of stone and several of the pieces had crumbled off. I liked to play around the wall, hopping from one stone to another, but so did the other kids and they wouldn’t play near it if I was as well. Which meant I would have to go hide behind a tree and watch them play instead. 

We reached the edge of the forest. The trees loomed over us as we drew closer. The leaves seemed to whisper to each other as I stood at the invisible line of the forest. Branches and thorns were scattered throughout the trees. But I was small enough that I could crawl underneath without getting scratched. I looked ahead to see if there was anything there, but the trees just faded together into endless rows of black lines. 

Just as I took my first step into the forest I heard a loud sound of something crashing. I spun my head around to look at the village and the origin of the noise. Faster than I could blink the entire village had erupted in monstrous red flames, easily burning down everything in its grasp. My cool body hissed as the heat traveled across my skin and into the air.

Fia screamed.  
Everything felt so warm and it was getting harder to breath. A wave of dizziness washed over me.  
“Quick find Tree. Tree!” Fia cried. I watched in shock as the entire town grew into a mountain of fire.


	2. The Eyes of the Pond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *I'm watching you Wazowski. Always watching*  
> (if you don't understand that reference I don't know if we can be friends. Just kidding I could never stay mad at you... unless you insult Hamilton...then that's just something we can't recover from)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope your enjoyed the first chapter. Now on to more development !

I raced through the forest, trying to keep ahead of the flames violently thrashing behind me. I held Fia tightly to my chest. My hands were becoming slippery the more I ran and I kept stumbling over fallen logs and tree roots. Dirt was flying into my hair and face, leaves with sparks of ember had been picked up by the winds and were landing dangerously closer and closer to my feet.  
It was hard to breathe and I wanted to stop running. Everything hurt. 

“-reee” I heard a faint voice squeak from my chest. Fia was squirming to get free of my grip.  
She repeated herself ‘Tree’. Fia wanted me to find a tree. There were so many trees which one was the right one? 

I kept on running as fast I could, thorns on the floor and were scratching my legs and I had to stop. 

“Fia where do we go? Fire. The fire’s coming” I whimpered. My bottom lip began to quiver. 

“Shh o-ok, will be ok. F-follow river! Find Tree!” Fia responded trying to sound strong but her voice was shaky. 

I looked around for the river. I had outrun the fire but I couldn’t see anything. Everything was so scary and dark. I wanted to go home. I covered my eyes with my hands. I wanted to give up, until I heard something to my left. The sound of rushing water. 

The river. 

I wiped my nose, took a deep breath and started running again. This time with my damaged legs, the run became a limp. There were rocks near the river that cut my feet and my body felt heavy. I wanted to lie down but, even though I couldn’t see it, I was too worried that the fire was getting closer to stop moving now. I thought I was imagining it, but something seemed to glow ahead of me. I squinted at the light. Then something caught on my foot and I fell hard, slamming down onto the forest floor.  
A tight pain flooded my chest and right foot, the skin grazed and cut from twigs and rocks at the edge of the river. 

A bright light shone ahead of me and in my confusion I covered my face with my hands, believing that the fire had finally circled around and swallowed me. I was frozen in position for several seconds before I noticed the sprite calling to me. 

“Young master! Young master! Tree! Found Tree!” she squealed excitedly. 

“What?” 

I uncovered my face and saw an enormous oak seemingly lighting up the otherwise dark forest. It was so tall, I imagined it could reach to the ends of the sky, all the way to the moon.  
It’s massive roots looked alive, dancing in and out of the dirt, easily taller than the stone walls back in the village. The leaves themselves look like clouds, their swaying in the breeze created a soft melody. It’s twisting branches bared an unknown array of purple fruits the size of my head. Accompanying the fruits were large lavender coloured flowers that’s fragrance was so intoxicatingly sweet I began to relax. 

I was in awe. It was beautiful. 

Fia rushed over to the tree and placed her hand on the centre of the base. The whole tree began to radiate an immense light, growing from the imprint of where Fia was resting. 

Everything became one big glowing light. My vision began to swirl from light to darkness, my eyes blurring until everything became dark. I blacked out to the sound of Fia calling to me.  
“MAYA!” 

*** 

I arose from the cool pond, my hands wiping away the water dripping down my face, as well as the hair strands that had began to stick to my drenched skin.  
Walking out of the water and onto the forest floor, I felt the mossy grass squish under my feet. The air outside was cool as I stood to dry in the sun, the breeze was beginning to give my naked body goosebumps.  
I reached out to grab the rest of my long thick hair that grew from my head all the way down to the floor. I twisted the wet golden caramel locks around (in it’s wet state it looked closer to the colour of an elms brown bark)  
I squeezing out the water, wringing it dry and then threw the hair over my shoulder. Even when twisted around, it reached the down to the floor. 

It was so long and I wished I could cut it, but it was the belief of the female sprites that; to cut ones hair was a sign of self-disrespect. It presented weakness in ones character.  
Hair was believed to be a precious object and could be used for magical properties depending on how well it was nurtured and cared for.  
The only time hair should be cut was if it was ready to be used in a potion or spell, which could take up to eight years of care. Or if the sprite was ready to give their hair as a sign of eternal love. 

The hair would act as a string of fate and tie an invisible, but detectable, thread onto their intended. If the feelings were not mutual, the sprite could live out their life trapped in an unrequited love, unable to feel love for anyone else.  
As a human, I wasn't sure if this applied to me or not, but I didn’t think that I would want to find out any time soon. I was only fifteen years old. 

My thoughts of love were interrupted as my sense tingled, feeling something or someones presence. I could feel eyes watching my every move, like a beam of heat boring into my back. My whole body tensed as I slowly turned my head. My chest rose higher with each breath, the exhaling through my nose was a puff of controlled air. 

“Maya, are you swimming again? Fia’s looking for you!” A voice called. Suddenly the heat was gone, I felt the presence disappear back into the forest. Whatever the thing that was watching me was, had been scared off by the loud voice. 

“Yes Theo, I’m over here by the pond” I responded to the impish voice that was easily recognisable as belonging to Theo the green sprite.  
He emerged from behind a tree, his curly red locks coming into view. Catching site of me, he smiled, and I knew exactly what he was thinking. ‘Yes I found Maya, that’ll make Fia happy! Maybe she’ll even give me a kiss as a reward’.  
I saw his little cheeks blush as he dreamily stared into the distance imagining the kiss I knew he wouldn’t be getting any time soon. 

The poor sprite had been in love with my guardian for decades and was a persistent peruser in the face of rejection. Unlike the females, male sprites were expected to have short hair. With the exception of one long braid that was also kept as a method for creating a fate string. 

Although there were were some sprites that believed fate had already chosen your partner, it was only a matter of whether or not you deserved to find them. 

“Keep dreaming Theo. You know Fia isn’t interested in finding a partner at the moment” I rolled my eyes at him.  
“Well you never know. I mean I know she spends all of her time worrying about you. Jeez ever since you arrived here for the past six years, all she’s been doing is making sure you’re safe. Even though it’s been ages since the doctors even touc-“ he stopped himself as he saw my expression darkening.  
“Sorry…I was rambling. I didn’t mean- You know that I didn’t mean…I’m going to shut up now.” he shrugged apologetically. His amber eyes looking panicked when I didn’t respond. 

“It’s ok.” I swallowed, trying to repress the images that came into my head. I clenched my hands. My childhood had not been a pleasant one. So many situations that I had been too naive to understand became heavier memories with time and age.  
“Anyway Fia is looking for me. Me mustn’t keep her waiting, you wouldn’t want to disappoint her would you?” I smiled at him, know full well that this would hurry him along.  
“Yes of course!” He beamed. Without a second thought he raced off back to the Tree. 

Once Theo was out of site I buried my face into my hands. Trying to calm my breath as my mind began to drift back to my nine year old self. Remembering the pain I felt my nails dig into my cheeks. 

I shook my head trying to shake off the panic. ‘It’s ok. You’re ok now. Claudius and all of the other doctors are in your past’ I told myself. Just the thought of his name brought back vivid images of his citrine eyes, the way that they would keep me so entranced, so ready to believe whatever he told me. 

Trying to leave the ideas of the past behind me, I went ahead, lightly jogging to catch up to the green sprite.  
Just as I had made it a few steps a cold sense of dread ran through me as I could feel the eyes from before watching me once again. Despite the fear running down my spine, I ignored whatever it was. This is a safe place and nothing could harm me with the protection of the sprites…right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case my writing wasn't clear enough, which I hope it has been:  
> -Maya is the main character and is now 15 years old  
> -She was nine before the six year time jump in the story

**Author's Note:**

> If you like the story then yay I have accomplished something in life... if not... well I'll just be over here in the corner, waiting for you to love me. Kidding but yeah I made this, if you'd like to see more of it then comment.. or don't I can't control you... or can I?


End file.
